In Kalma camp in Darfur, a state of joy reigns among the population displaced by a bloody conflict, after the Sudanese transitional government announced its agreement to hand over former President Omar al-Bashir to the International Criminal Court, which accuses him of war crimes in the region.

Inside the camp, near Nyala, the capital of South Darfur state, Ibrahim Omar, who was seven years old when the conflict flared in 2003, says: “Victims and all those affected by the war in Darfur are overwhelmed today by the agreement to hand Bashir and his aides to the criminal court.”

Al-Bashir was ousted in April, after a months-long protest movement pushed the army to overthrow him. The Sudanese Transitional Council announced on Tuesday that Bashir and three other people will be extradited to the International Criminal Court, which is prosecuting them on charges of crimes committed in the Darfur region in western Sudan.

The conflict erupted in the Darfur region, when rebels belonging to African minorities took up arms against the Bashir government, which was accused of marginalizing the region economically and politically.

Kalma camp was established at the start of the conflict, and is now sheltering nearly 230,000 displaced people.

Adam Ali, 65, says: "The camp was very happy when they heard the news of the agreement to hand Bashir over to the criminal court."

And Ali, who is one of tens of thousands who deserted their villages and towns of origin because of the war that killed about 300 thousand people, according to international statistics: «We were following this issue with passion, because if he did not surrender to the crime, then a war could start again».

One of the main demands of the rebels in the region with whom the current transitional authorities are seeking peace is with Bashir, to hand over to the International Criminal Court.

The residents of Kalma camp live in houses built of mud and straw, and depend on the assistance provided by United Nations agencies and international organizations working in the field of relief.

The new Sudanese government promised to establish peace in the Darfur region, in which a war between rebels and government forces erupted in 2003, displacing 2.5 million people, according to the United Nations.

Omar al-Bashir is wanted by the International Criminal Court on charges of murder and genocide, forced deportation, torture and rape.

Arrest warrants

About 10 years ago, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for three other Sudanese officials, including former Minister of Defense Abdel Rahim Mohamed Hussein, former Minister of State in the Interior Ahmed Mohamed Haroun, and a local militia leader named Ali Kushayb, on charges of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. .

Last December 14, a court in Khartoum imposed a reservation on the 75-year-old former Sudanese president in a "social reform house for two years", after being convicted of corruption in one of several cases he has faced since his overthrow.

Victory for the victims

Ishaq Muhammad Issa, 72, said he was "very satisfied" with the Sudanese government's approval of Bashir's trial before the international criminal, noting that a number of his family members were "killed in the war."

Yaqoub Muhammad, one of the officials in charge of the affairs of the displaced people in the camp, confirms that the government's move "will build confidence between them and the transitional government."

"It also represents a victory for the victims," ​​he added, sitting in front of his home in the camp.

For his part, Jamal Mohamed said: "We felt comfortable when Bashir fell, and now we feel that we are recovering (from the effects of the war), after the decision to hand him over to the International Criminal Court, this is a prerequisite for us."

Human rights NGOs urged Khartoum to expedite the handover of the former president to the International Criminal Court.

Hassan Ishaq stresses that "if Bashir and his aides are not extradited to the International Criminal Court, he will not find peace on the road to Darfur."

The Darfur conflict ... Sudan's continuing headache

The region of Darfur is inhabited by Arab and other African tribes who speak alongside Arabic for their own languages. The number of tribes inhabiting the region is estimated at about 100, but historically until today the Arab tribes that live in a state of movement were practicing grazing, while the majority of African tribes were stable and practiced agriculture, where Animals contribute to the fertilization of agricultural land in the period when the rainy season begins, after which the herders return with their livestock to the natural grazing areas.

The environmental factor was the first factor that led to the outbreak of conflict between the two parties, and the drought and desertification that occurred in the period of the eighties of the last century led to the outbreak of the conflict, and was further complicated by the outbreak of war in the south, in addition to the Chadian-Libyan war, which led to the flow of weapons to the region , And training fighters from both sides.

The economic policy that began with the encouragement of the International Monetary Fund to export agricultural food production in the late years of the rule of Jaafar al-Numayri, and the famines in the days of drought and drought, led to the collapse of the intimate relationship between farmers and herders, and at the same time and since the end of the seventies of the last century and as a result of the isolation of Darfur, which It is not yet linked by a paved road to the rest of the country. The phenomenon of armed robbery has increased, and Darfuris have continued to venture to complain about the lack of development projects in the region and the poor health and educational services.

We must not lose sight of the political and ethnic causes here. The ideas of Engineer Daoud Yahya Bolad, who is a Darfuri, have grown strongly among the people of Darfur, and he was a prominent leader in the ranks of the Islamic political movement, and the center in Khartoum was calling for the marginalized parties to be given their share of power, wealth and development. Bolad was later arrested with the help of the Janjaweed militias of the Sudanese security services, brought to trial in Darfur, and executed, and this led to a growing sense of persecution and bitterness among the people of Darfur, and then triggered the current conflict in Darfur.

These operations reached their climax in April 2003 in the attack that targeted the city of El Fasher (the largest city in the region and the capital of North Darfur State), and the rebel movements began raising slogans of political, social, development and economic grievances, and later accused the government of practicing the policy of ethnic cleansing. Khartoum - agencies

One of the main demands of the rebels in the region with whom the current transitional authorities are seeking peace is with Bashir, to hand over to the International Criminal Court.